Enjoy “Mambo Bado” beat that Bongo Flava misses

DAR ES SALAAM: CRAFTED in a Wazaramo-styled Mdundiko beat, “Mambo Bado”, released in 1982 by Orchestra Makassy, remains the first Tanzanian Rap and Hip Hop hit that shared the same dance floor with Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” at the time when the moonwalk slide commanded the show.

As it was very popular in discotheque clubs of the era; Msasani Beach, WMCA, Mbowe, Rungwe Oceanic, and Silver Sands- “Mambo Bado” shared the dancefloor with “Holiday” by Madonna, “Celebration” by Kool & Gang and all the hits found in Jackson’s Thriller album, most notably “Starting Something”, “Bill Jean” and “Thriller” itself.

The moonwalk, or backslide, was a popping dance move in which the performer glides backwards but their body actions suggest forward motion.

It became popular around the world when American singer Michael Jackson performed the move during the performance of the Thriller album, most notably “Billie Jean”.

As Tshimanga Kalala Assossa, the composer of the song’s chorus, noted, “Mambo Bado” was adored by the discotheque goers, the majority of them being Secondary School students.

According to Assossa, who manned the vocal section and the song’s animation, “Mambo Bado” is a personal innovation from producer Norman Mighell, a studio expert who engineered the song during the Agwaya Session in Nairobi, Kenya, back in 1982.

It baffled Assossa and his fellow musicians how easily “Mambo Bado” won the hearts of the Tanzanian youths who were then firmly glued to American Funk and its associated Rnb genres.

Assossa believes what producer Mighelli did was a big lesson to the musicians since he revealed what the globe loves in music.

“It was pure rhumba music when we brought the song to the CBS Nairobi studio. Mr Mighell didn’t like the rhumba set-up and told us to concentrate only on its chorus part and we did as he suggested,” he recalls.

Assossa said the emphatic repetition of the chorus, which he penned and co-performed with Mzee Kitenzogu Makassy, Athuman Kundya, and Mallik Star, combined well with the Mdundiko beat the song cherished as its core rhythm.

The song became a massive hit worldwide; Engineer Mighelli labelled it a Rap/Hip Hop song.

Mambo Bado” Album: Legends Of East Africa Producer: Norman Mighelli Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap ℗ 1982 A.I Records Kenya Limited The song had 1980 Radio Tanzanian Sessions before the Nairobi Agwaya Sessions on the Virgin label in 1982, and it was reissued in 2005 under the title.

Though Mosesengo Fan Fan was named among musicians credited for the performance of the classic “Mambo Bado”, Assossa said the ex-TP OK Jazz guitarist didn’t play guitar in the song and named Kawele Mutimanwa as the main guitarist in the song.

“We didn’t take Mambo Bado as a vital innovation, but the globe did,” he recalls.

Assossa said global music fans, most of them sailors whose marine vessels frequently docked at the Port of Dar es Salaam, frequently asked him to play the song live after enjoying it at Mbowe Club (later Club Billicanas), a night hotpot for sailors from across the globe.

“Communication barrier, however, was a big problem; I couldn’t understand what they exactly wanted,” he recalls.

He said it was very late when he discovered that “Mambo Bado” topped music charts in English-speaking countries from the UK to Australia and New Zealand.

“I think the modernisation of Tanzanian music started with “Mambo Bado” in 1982 and not in 1994 when “Bongo Flava” was officially coined,” he suggests.

The global conquest of the “Mambo Bado” thriller was a wake-up call to Tanzanian music, according to Assossa, as it forced bands and artists to adopt certain colours of music that dominated the disco craze and its associated American pop scene, whose chief players were Black Americans.

“Youthful Tanzanians of the early 1980s ignored the traditional rhumba music we played after the disco craze onslaught,” says Bindo Bakari Kipanga, the former Mwenge Jazz master guitarist.

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He said the dance music had to adopt certain elements of world music like Caribbean Soca, James Brown’s Soul and funk, and Motown-styled RnB in collective efforts to win them.

He said Mwenge Jazz, through Farahani Mzee’s compositions “Kizunguzungu” and “Carolina”, had to reshape their music to suit Soul and Funk tastes.

“I played a solo guitar in both songs. I had to sweeten them with a wah-wah pedal as sound effects to my Gibson guitar in an effort to modernise our music,” he recalls.

He said he used the wah-wah pedal to appeal to the young generation in Jimi Hendrix style. The wah-wah pedal sound effects was heard in Voodoo Chile which Hendrix released in 1969 and he was seen on stage playing guitar with his teeth in “Hey Joe”, which he released in 1967. Also, among his seminal classics was “Purple Haze” which was recorded in 1967.

Jimi Hendrix is considered to be one of the most influential guitarists of all time because of his innovative and unique style of playing. According to Bindo, Hendrix changed the way people hear the guitar by playing it differently from the way guitarists had played it before him.

Still, as Bindo believes, dance music is still strong today when Bongo Flava celebrates its 30th anniversary while the band celebrates 65 years of culturally, socially and politically united Tanzania through live music. Most of the band’s owned Armed Forces units are alive and kicking hard, according to Bindo Bakari, a retired Mwenge Jazz master guitarist.

“What people don’t know is that dance music is still adored countrywide, but their presence is not felt at this epoch of digitalised music,” noted Bindo, who joined Mwenge Jazz in the mid-1970s from serving in the Western Jazz Band, a defunct band also based in Dar es Salaam. “Dance music bands are the masters of live performance.

They play all types of music at professional ease, while, on the contrary, Bongo Flava, as music that embraces solo artistry, cannot manage to play a full orchestra with three trumpets supported by two saxophones and a trombone plus four guitars; solo, rhythm, 2nd solo (mi- solo) and bass,” he noted.

“Most of the old jazz bands have been sidelined by the recording industry, but they are still active as live music performers,” echoed Ruvu JKT guitarist Rashid Sumuni, who is serving the band after parting ways with Mchinga Sound of Muumini Mwinjuma fame.

“All of them; Mwenge Jazz, Air Jazz, Arusha Les Mwenge Jazz, Magereza Jazz Mkote Ngoma, Ruvu JKT, JKT Kimbunga and Police Jazz Vanga Vanga are still performing today,” he insisted.

JKT Ruvu band’s leader, Captain Kigula, says people love live band music because it offers raw energy, genuine human connection, and unique artistic moments. “Live band music has been a heaven for gentle dance lovers.”

People like to hear the dance music of the 1970s and 80s while the surprise packages have been the music of contemporary stars like Ali Kiba, Diamond Platnumz, Ferre Gola, Fally Ipupa and Koffi Olomide,” JKT Ruvu’s bassist Sam Noah added.

“People of the Bongo Flava generation seem to enjoy listening, watching and dancing to these hits,” said the singer.